Who is Sir Jeffrey Donaldson? DUP leader steps down after criminal charges
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has been an ever-present feature of the political landscape in Northern Ireland for several decades.
But his leadership of the Democratic Unionist Party came to an end on 29 March, when it revealed Donaldson had resigned as chief after he was charged with sexual offences of a “historical nature”.
Born in County Down in the 1960s, he was raised during the Troubles and has been a vocal campaigner for unionism throughout his life.
Donaldson came to the fore after the UK left the EU for his opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol – which he believed undermined Northern Ireland‘s place in the United Kingdom.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson did not endorse the Windsor Framework
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Growing up and family deaths
Donaldson was born in 1962 and raised in Kilkeen in County Down alongside four brothers and three sisters in what he described as “a traditional, rural, home-centred upbringing”.
As a boy, his “childhood innocence was shattered” by the Troubles – in 1970 his cousin Samuel Donaldson, a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, was killed in an IRA car bombing.
As a young man, he joined the Orange Order, a protestant group in which he later became an Assistant Grand Master.
He was at one point chairman of the Ulster Young Unionist Council, and also joined the Ulster Defence Regiment – a part of the British Army which mainly consisted of volunteers, who largely spent their time guarding key points, patrolling, carrying out surveillance, and manning vehicle checkpoints.
In 1985 Samuel’s brother, Alex, was also killed by the IRA, in a mortar attack on a police station.
Alex Donaldson was killed in a mortar attack on Newry police station
Run up to the Good Friday Agreement and defection
In the early 1980s, Donaldson worked on Enoch Powell’s campaigns to be elected as an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MP for South Down.
Donaldson was later elected as a UUP member of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1985 at the age of 22.
He was elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and was a member of the UUP’s negotiating team for what became the Good Friday Agreement.
However, he voted against the deal in the subsequent referendum and warned UUP leader David Trimble against supporting it.
In 1998, he was blocked from standing in the elections for the Stormont assembly.
Having continued to agitate under Lord Trimble’s leadership, Donaldson left the UUP in 2003 and joined the DUP, having been re-elected to Stormont.
Sir Jeffrey, left, with Lord Trimble, during Northern Ireland peace negotiations in Downing Street in 1997
Brexit, Northern Ireland Protocol and the party leadership
Donaldson has served consistently as the DUP MP for Lagan Valley, but stood down from the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2010, having served in government in Belfast.
He was notable for his opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion – which Westminster legalised in Northern Ireland.
In 2016 he was knighted in the birthday honours list for political service.
In the same year, he supported Brexit, and became associated with the Theresa May administration in 2017 as part of the confidence and supply arrangement which saw the DUP support Mrs May’s government in key votes.
However, the party opposed the deal Mrs May put to parliament in 2019.
Since the implementation of Brexit, Donaldson has opposed the Northern Ireland Protocol, which he says undermines the Good Friday Agreement he voted against.
In 2019 he became the leader of the DUP at Westminster, and was elected leader of the party as a whole in 2021.
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Donaldson on DUP’s deal decision
He successfully stood in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly elections, but has said he will not take up the seat until the situation with the Northern Ireland Protocol can be resolved.
Last year, Donaldson refused to endorse the Windsor Framework, which was intended to resolve issues with the Protocol – and is still sitting as an MP at Westminster.
Power-sharing returned in Northern Ireland in early 2024, after Donaldson and the DUP agreed on a way forward with the UK government on post-Brexit trade.
His resignation was confirmed on Good Friday 2024, and it was announced that his deputy, Gavin Robinson MP, would be made interim leader.
It is understood Donaldson will be “strenuously contesting” all charges against him.
Stablecoin issuer Circle has secured regulatory approval to operate as a financial service provider in the Abu Dhabi International Financial Center, deepening its push into the United Arab Emirates.
In an announcement Tuesday, Circle Internet Group said it received a Financial Services Permission license from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the International Financial Centre of Abu Dhabi. This allows the stablecoin issuer to operate as a Money Services Provider in the IFC.
The USDC (USDC) issuer also appointed Saeeda Jaffar as its managing director for Circle Middle East and Africa. The new executive also serves as a senior vice president and group country manager for the Gulf Operation Council at Visa and will be tasked with developing the stablecoin issuer’s regional strategy and partnerships.
Circle co-founder, chairman and CEO Jeremy Allaire said that the relevant regulatory framework “sets a high bar for transparency, risk management, and consumer protection,” adding that those standards are needed if “trusted stablecoins” are going to support payments and finance at scale.
Related: Abu Dhabi Investment Council triples stake in Bitcoin ETF in Q3: Report
Abu Dhabi awards a wave of licenses
The ADGM has recently awarded licenses for financial operations to a wave of crypto companies. Earlier this week, Tether’s USDt (USDT) — the largest stablecoin by circulation and Circle’s top competitor — secured a regulatory milestone in Abu Dhabi’s international financial center, as did Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin Ripple USD at the end of November.
On Monday, crypto exchange Binance was granted three separate licenses from Abu Dhabi’s financial regulator, allowing it to operate its exchange, clearing house and broker-dealer services. This followed its competitor Bybit receiving regulatory approval in the UAE in early October.
Related: HSBC to bring tokenized deposits to US and UAE as stablecoin race heats up
UAE bets on crypto
The Central Bank of the UAE has been actively reviewing its cryptocurrency regulations. In November, it introduced rules for decentralized finance (DeFi) and the broader Web3 industry.
The newly introduced Federal Decree Law No. 6 of 2025 brings DeFi platforms, related services and infrastructure providers under the scope of regulations if they enable payments, exchange, lending, custody, or investment services, with licenses now required. Local crypto lawyer Irina Heaver said that “DeFi projects can no longer avoid regulation by claiming they are just code.”
Heaver told Cointelegraph at the end of 2024 that during that year the country cemented its status as a global crypto hub.
In October 2024, the UAE exempted cryptocurrency transfers and conversions from value-added tax, just a month after Dubai’s digital asset regulator announced stricter rules on crypto marketing. Around the same time, local free economic zone Ras Al Khaimah Digital Assets Oasis was also working to introduce a legal framework for decentralized autonomous organizations.
Local regulators were not shy about enforcing the rules, with Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority cracking down on seven unlicensed crypto businesses, issuing fines and cease-and-desist orders.
Magazine: Review: The Devil Takes Bitcoin, a wild history of Mt. Gox and Silk Road
Crypto companies seeking a US federal bank charter should be treated no differently than other financial institutions, says Jonathan Gould, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
Gould told a blockchain conference on Monday that some new charter applicants in the digital or fintech spaces could be seen as offering novel activities for a national trust bank, but noted “custody and safekeeping services have been happening electronically for decades.”
“There is simply no justification for considering digital assets differently,” he added. “Additionally, it is important that we do not confine banks, including current national trust banks, to the technologies or businesses of the past.”
The OCC regulates national banks and has previously seen crypto companies as a risk to the banking system. Only two crypto banks are OCC-licensed: Anchorage Digital, which has held a charter since 2021, and Erebor, which got a preliminary banking charter in October.
Crypto “should have” a way to supervision
Gould said that the banking system has the “capacity to evolve from the telegraph to the blockchain.”
He added that the OCC had received 14 applications to start a new bank so far this year, “including some from entities engaged in novel or digital asset activities,” which was nearly equal to the number of similar applications that the OCC received over the last four years.
“Chartering helps ensure that the banking system continues to keep pace with the evolution of finance and supports our modern economy,” he added. “That is why entities that engage in activities involving digital assets and other novel technologies should have a pathway to become federally supervised banks.”
Gould brushes off banks’ concerns
Gould noted that banks and financial trade groups had raised concerns about crypto companies getting banking charters and the OCC’s ability to oversee them.
Related: Argentina weighs letting traditional banks trade crypto: Report
“Such concerns risk reversing innovations that would better serve bank customers and support local economies,” he said. “The OCC has also had years of experience supervising a crypto-native national trust bank.”
Gould said the regulator was “hearing from existing national banks, on a near daily basis, about their own initiatives for exciting and innovative products and services.”
“All of this reinforces my confidence in the OCC’s ability to effectively supervise new entrants as well as new activities of existing banks in a fair and even-handed manner,” he added.
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